


Travel Plans

by ellbie



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad date, M/M, valentine's day adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22775890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellbie/pseuds/ellbie
Summary: “Why are we here?”The Doctor was staring dreamily at their surroundings. “Do you recognize that star?” he asked, pointing to the white dwarf.The Master squinted at it. “Nope.”More post-EoT AU in which the Doctor and the Master have been traveling together. More hijinks.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/The Master (Simm), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 72





	Travel Plans

“Is this a trick?” the Master asked. He tried to sound disinterested, but his bored look slipped each time his eyes flicked toward whatever lay beyond the TARDIS doors.

“‘Course it’s not a trick!” the Doctor laughed. He held the door open with one hand while the other held the railing that lined the walkway. His grin was fit to split his face in two. “Look, I’ll go first if you don’t believe me.”

And like every other time the Doctor fancied a whim, he bolted out of the ship, leaving the Master behind. Grimacing, the Master twisted his neck until he felt a satisfying pop, then he straightened his jacket and followed the Doctor outside.

His feet landed on hard-packed grey dirt. The TARDIS, he noticed, was perched on a small asteroid orbiting close to a white dwarf star. The Master saw the rough edge of the floating crag drop off to the rest of the universe no more than thirty feet away in any direction. Above them, more asteroids followed their orbit, rotating lazily as they drifted along.

The TARDIS projected a wide enough atmosphere that they could at least breathe, but nothing was stopping one of the other giant rocks from colliding with them. His skin prickled at the thought.

“Why are we here?”

The Doctor was staring dreamily at their surroundings. “Do you recognize that star?” he asked, pointing to the white dwarf.

The Master squinted at it. “Nope.”

The Doctor huffed and let his arm drop back to his side. “That’s Magda-beta! Twin star of the Magda binary system! Magda-alpha should be around here somewhere…” The Doctor spun around, eyes visored by his hand as he squinted through the asteroid belt, trying to spot the sister star. 

Before the Master could ask if any of this was supposed to mean something to him, the Doctor had jogged to the edge of the asteroid and flung himself down into the dirt. The Master didn’t even have time to shout before the lanky man was scrabbling forward, torso leaning dangerously far over the drop-off. 

“There it is!” he shouted triumphantly, one hand pointing down to a distant glimmer and the other locked straight behind him to grip a handhold on the ledge. He let out a startled _oof_ as rough hands hauled him to his feet by the back of his jacket.

“Be careful, you idiot!” the Master hissed. “If you fall, I can’t pilot myself off this rock.” 

The Doctor just smiled stupidly at him and brushed the dust from his rumpled suit. It was as if his entire purpose in life was to piss the Master off.

He pressed his thumb and forefinger down the bridge of his nose and let out a withering sigh. “You’ve said _where_ we are, but you haven’t said _why_. And before you go throwing yourself off the other side of this asteroid, kindly disable the isomorphic controls on your TARDIS so I can at least mourn your death somewhere more appealing.”

The Doctor was still smiling, and the Master felt his words catch. Clearing his throat, he turned away from the small star and looked back at where the TARDIS sat, framed by the black vacuum and distant stars behind them.

“Do you remember much from our Academy days?” the Doctor asked casually.

He snapped his attention back to the other Time Lord and frowned. “Unfortunately.” 

A shadow from a passing asteroid moved over the Doctor’s face as he grinned. “Remember when we’d sneak out at night to watch the moons rise?”

He had to smirk at that. “If you’re going to get sentimental, at least tell it like it happened,” the Master said, reaching out telepathically in hopes of gleaning the Doctor's objective here. “ _You_ would sneak out. I’d chase after you and try to drag you back so you wouldn’t get expelled.”

He resisted the attempt.

“Funny how that turned out, huh?” the Doctor wondered aloud, and the Master chuckled dryly.

When the quiet fell back over them, they returned their attention to the star. The ball of blue-white plasma roiled silently under their gazes. It wasn’t particularly bright, just a remnant core leaking heat and light, it’s fuel source burned away. The Master thought absently about all of the tooling available on the TARDIS, isomorphically locked _just_ out of reach. With access to the controls, he could calculate how much heat the core retained, how long this walking corpse had before it merged with its sister star, and just how many explosives it would take to trigger a solar flare aimed at the closest inhabited planet. The dwarf was cold and ancient and dying, but a targeted coronal emission would be enough to devastate a local population. 

Grinning at the hypothetical plot, he fantasized about how the Doctor might try to stop him. Surely monologuing would be involved — they both loved a good monologue almost as much as they loved banter. The Doctor would probably go off on one of his nonsensical tangents, waxing poetic about how the universe was meant to be seen, not destroyed, and the Master would roll his eyes and activate the explosives anyway, only to realize the Doctor had done something invariably stupid like _reverse the polarity_. And when that caused the explosive trigger to backfire, putting the Master in harm’s way, the Doctor would swoop in to save him because of _course_ the Master wouldn’t be permitted the mercy of dying without hearing _one last monologue_ about how _good_ would always prevail over evil, and _blah, blah, blah_.

He could already hear the Doctor’s whiny voice cracking with fervor in his head, and he coughed to cover a snicker. 

Thankfully, the Doctor didn’t notice. He was too busy lacing his fingers through the Master’s, making his head jerk around so fast he felt a muscle pull. His eyebrows climbed to his hairline as he stared down at their interlocked hands. Unaware, the Doctor was still staring straight ahead, eyes fixed on the dim light source.

“We swore up and down we’d see every star in the universe together,” the Doctor said, turning to smile at him. His voice was barely above a whisper. “Do you remember what you said when I asked which one you’d want to see first?” He tipped his head toward Magda-beta and waggled his eyebrows. 

The Master’s eyes narrowed. “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” he said, snatching his hand back. 

The flash of dejection that passed over the Doctor’s face was enough to make his mouth water. He allowed himself one moment to savor it before turning on his heel and stomping back toward the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor gaping in the dust. He didn’t slow down when he heard footfalls sprinting after him.

The other Time Lord caught the Master’s elbow before he got to the doors. “Can you please not spoil this? Just this once?” The plea came out in a single exasperated breath.

The Master didn’t turn to face him. “Spoil _what_ , exactly?” He jerked his arm out of the Doctor’s grasp and pushed at the TARDIS doors, groaning when he found they were locked. He shot the Doctor an impatient look and gestured toward the keyhole. “Hope you didn’t drop the key over the edge.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and fished under his collar for the chain that hung around his neck. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to say ‘thank you.’” The Master’s eye twitched, but the Doctor ignored him, instead pulling the thin silver chain out from his shirt along with the small TARDIS key dangling from the end. “It’s only polite, after all.”

The Master sneered at him and thought back to his fourth attempt at taking over Earth. Around that time, he’d been fortunate enough to pick up a quaint trick from humanity. It was a simple technique intended to calm an angry mind. All one had to do was take a deep breath and count slowly to ten. Of course, with the drumbeat banging away incessantly in his head, the Master found it much more efficient to count to four, over and over, faster and faster, until a vein popped out of his forehead. 

Behind them, a cool, dark spot on the star’s surface moved into view, threatening to erupt.

Jamming the key into the door, the Doctor grumbled, “I only ever try to be nice, and you act like I’m cruel.”

Humans were idiots if they thought this counting trick worked.

When the lock clicked open, the Doctor was still muttering. “You ask to see Magda-beta, and I take you to see Magda-beta. And what do I get in retur—”

“It was _Meuroa_ -beta, you _total_ and _complete moron_!” the Master exploded, loud enough that the Doctor stumbled back. “You wouldn’t have even been able to _see_ Magda-beta from Gallifrey that time of year, and yet you have the _gall_ to stand here and act all _self-righteous_ about a promise you made — on a _whim_ , I might add — _almost 800 years ago_!” The Master jammed his finger into the Doctor’s chest, making him wince. “ _This_ is your problem: you’re always so excited to hear yourself talk that you never listen. And even when you try to listen, you’re still so damn scatterbrained, that you can’t even—” The Master’s mouth pulled into a frown. “What are you smiling about?”

The Doctor’s wide cow eyes stared unblinking at the Master, even as they crinkled with the slow grin spreading across his face.“You _do_ remember! I _knew_ this would work!”

The Master’s own eyes were owlish, his mouth pinched. A tendon in his neck twinged as he tried to force down the blush that was creeping up into his cheeks. They stared at each other for a moment, the Doctor beaming and the Master wondering if his head would burst if he didn’t give into the overwhelming urge to punch the smile off the Doctor’s stupid face. 

He balled up his fist and swallowed. “You’re not seriously going to pretend this was part of some plan, are you?”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do!” the Doctor shouted as he ran back into the TARDIS. “Come on, come on! Gotta hurry! That star spot looks like it might flare, and it's a bit of a jump to get over to Meuroa-beta. We’ve only got another billion years before it collides with Meuroa-alpha!” The Doctor skipped around the controls. “Now _that_ would be chaotic. Don’t want to stick around for _that_.”

The Master joined the Doctor at the console, eyeing him with reluctant amusement.

The Doctor turned to him and smiled. “Or, I don’t know, maybe you would. A tiny neutron star in the same orbit as the massive Meuroa-beta, getting closer and closer until… _Bam!_ ” The Doctor spread his fingers wide and let them rain down. “Supernova! Light and bits of star all collapsing into a black hole.” He winked. “Seems like something you’d be into.”

“Oh, my dear Doctor,” the Master said, his voice dripping honey-sweet out of a mad leer, “I’d love to stick around for the stellar event. Maybe shoving you into the black hole will offer you a deeper insight into the _actual_ physics behind the collision.” He scoffed. “‘ _Light and bits of star._ ’ I mean, _really._ ” He hoped his smirk was enough to cover the fraction of a genuine smile that had snuck onto his face.

The Doctor’s cheeks were tinted a soft pink as he beamed from ear-to-ear. “ _Allons-y, Maître!_ ”

Outside, the electromagnetic build up on Magda-beta discharged, sending out a blast of radiation that washed harmlessly over the TARDIS. With a grinding wheeze, the ship dematerialized, and they were off to the other end of the universe.


End file.
